Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad,

CARS is a volunteer rescue squad with approximately 100 active members. We have been serving the community continuously since 1960. In 2008, we ran over 12,000 calls and Firehouse Magazine ranked us as the busiest volunteer rescue squad in the country. CARS operates eight advanced life ambulances (medic units), three advanced life support quick response cars (zone cars), two heavy rescue trucks (squads), a water rescue truck with two boats, a technical rescue truck, a collapse rescue trailer, a command car, a mass casuality incident truck, and a support trailer. All current apparatus is owned by the department and was purchased primarily with funds raised through donations from our community. The Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad has personnel trained at both the ALS and BLS level. Paramedic certification includes over 600 hours of classroom training and months of practical rotations in the hospital, along with a minimum of 40 hours of continuing education annually. ALS certified personnel can initiate complex medical and airway procedures for critically injured trauma and medical emergency patients. EMT-B providers receive 121 hours of training and are taught basic intercessory procedures to react to most any emergency situation. These technicians are also able to assist patients with administering their own medications. We are dispatched on emergency calls by the Emergency Communications Center (ECC). Assignment of apparatus to emergency calls is predetermined based on response time and distance. Most members carry a department issued pager or use a smartphone app which alerts them to major emergency calls and assists in bringing in additional staffing during peak call loads.